President Discusses Energy, Iraq and Middle East
Remarks by the President to the Press Pool
FINA Gas Station
Crawford, Texas

6:40 A.M. CDT

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning, everybody. How are you? Last night
I talked to Pete Dominici and Billy Tauzin. Pete is the Chairman of
the Senate committee dealing with energy and Billy is the Chairman of
the House committee dealing with energy. Pete believes they can get
the conference up and running in 20 days to deal with this very
important energy bill. Both members are very optimistic about reaching
agreement, obviously on infrastructure modernization, but as
importantly, other issues related to energy.

One thing is for certain. There is -- very confident they'll have
mandatory reliability standards in the energy bill. What that means is
that companies transmitting energy will have to have to have strong
reliability measures in place, otherwise there will be a consequence
for them. There will be incentives in the new bill to encourage
investment in energy infrastructure.

So I'm very pleased with the attitude of the two members, their
desire to get a bill done quickly and get it to my desk. I have been
calling for an energy bill for a long time. And now is the time for
the Congress to move and get something done.

I also talked to Energy Secretary Abraham. Tomorrow the joint
inquiry with the Canadians will begin. I don't know how long it's
going to take to find out what went wrong, but I know it's not going to
take long to get the meeting started to determine what went wrong.

I'll answer a couple of questions, then I've got to get moving.

Q They've just captured Saddam's Vice President. Does that
give you hope that we're closer to catching Saddam?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I don't know the facts of where he was, what
was going on. I'm really pleased that we've captured the Vice
President. Slowly but surely, we'll find who we need to find. It's
just a matter of time. Listen, we've got a lot of brave people doing a
lot of hard work in Iraq.

And it's -- because Iraq was terrorized and dominated by a
dictator, it's going to take a while to get this country to understand
what's necessary to be a free country. But we'll find him and we'll
bring him to justice.

Stevenson.

Q Sir, I realize it's early to find out what went on with the
blackout, but do you know enough at this point to be able to say
whether there's anything new or different that you would like in the
energy bill beyond what you proposed --

THE PRESIDENT: Well, listen, I thought the energy bill was very
comprehensive. We particularly liked the House -- a lot of the House
bill. The Senate, as you know, in order to get out of town, expedited
a piece of legislation. The House bill is a very comprehensive bill.
And I'm confident the two bodies can work out differences. If they do
what's in the -- if they do what's in the House bill, for example, and
what's in the -- a lot in the Senate bill, we'll get us a good bill.

Q Sir, the cease-fire by the Palestinians runs out in a few
weeks. Do you think it should be extended, and why?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, you know, look. Here's my view on
cease-fires and -- I'm happy there's calm, and I think that's
important. But the most important thing is to -- for the parties that
care for their -- for peace to dismantle terrorist organizations that
want to kill. That's how we're going to achieve a peaceful settlement
in the Middle East. Calm is good. The fact that people aren't dying
is good.

But the ultimate solution -- and this can happen quickly, in my
judgment -- is to find those who would -- who believe killing is the
best approach to dealing with the very difficult problems in the Middle
East.

Q Sir, Israel has kind of eased off of their request for actual
dismantling the terrorists, and they're putting their faith in the
Palestinian Authority to contain these guys. Do you have --

THE PRESIDENT: I don't want to put words in the Israelis' mouth,
but I can assure you that they're interested in dismantling
organizations such as Hamas.

Q But do you think that the Palestinian Authority, right now,
can contain these --

THE PRESIDENT: I think that the Palestinian Authority needs to
continue to work with the United States and others who are interested
in dismantling terrorist organizations and ask for the help necessary
so they can go and do what they need to do, which is dismantle and
destroy organizations which are interested in killing innocent lives in
order to prevent a peace process from going forward.

Q Mr. President, your budget director gave an interview to the
Wall Street Journal suggesting that there won't be any corporate tax
cuts to deal with this World Trade Organization trade dispute; about
$100 billion in tax cuts making its way through Congress. Are we done
with tax cuts for the foreseeable future?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, we'll see. As I said the other day, as we
stand right now, I believe the tax relief packages we have in place are
doing their job. But I'm a flexible person. I want to make sure that
the conditions for economic growth and vitality are strong. But we'll
take a look and see. I'm pleased the markets have responded. I'm
pleased that there's economic vitality and growth. But until everybody
finds a job who wants one -- today -- and can't find one, is able to
work, then I'm going to continue working on the economy.

Q Sir, given the decreasing likelihood of there being another
United Nations resolution on Iraq, should the American people be
prepared for a longer and larger deployment of American forces there?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, one of the things that's happening is that
international forces are now coming into Iraq. There's a significant
reconstruction effort going on in which other nations besides the
United States and our initial coalition partners are participating.

In other words, there is an international effort going on that will
help Iraq reconstruct itself and help Iraq develop into a peaceful,
democratic country. And that's in our country's interest, that Iraq
become a peaceful, free, democratic country. Part of the war on terror
is to promote freedom in the Middle East. I like to remind people that
a free Iraq will no longer serve as a haven for terrorists or as a
place for terrorists to get money or arms. A free Iraq will make the
Middle East a more peaceful place, and a peaceful Middle East is
important to the security of the United States.

Listen, I've got to go. Thank you. I hope you all have a
wonderful morning.

Q How's the First Lady?

THE PRESIDENT: She's great. Thanks. She actually suggested maybe
bringing the press corps out to the ranch. Her idea.

Q Good idea.

THE PRESIDENT: What?

Q Good idea.

THE PRESIDENT: Well --

Q What is she keeping busy with?

THE PRESIDENT: You know, she's -- you'll see, if you ever get out
there, that she's got a lot of wildflowers. And she's restoring a lot
of the area around the house, the native grasses. By the way, we've
got quail back -- bobwhite quail has now returned around our house. It
wasn't there when we first bought the place. And because the grasses
have been restored, we've got a nice little family of bobwhites. It's
a fantastic experience to hear them call in the morning.

My friend Blossman caught about a six pound bass yesterday. So the
bass are growing and they're getting healthy. Life out there at the
ranch is just fine. It gets a little toasty about 3:00 p.m. in the
afternoon, though.